What ' s your take on collaborations and how important is it ? Collaboration >>> competition . I love collaborating - it makes the process more fun , allows you to push yourself out of your comfort zone , and challenges your own way of thinking . I collabo-rate with folks across a spectrum of art forms : musical , content-based , artistic , dance and more . Too often I feel like we think of those similar to us as competition , but in fact if we all collaborate , we ’ re only increasing the scope of the industry and the pie for everyone involved . Music is also awesome because it can be paired with so many different art forms . I ’ ve loved seeing people “ create ” to the songs - things and concepts I could never have imagined ! The other cool thing about collaboration is that you get to make so many new friends !!! And expose them to your audience and vice versa . It ’ s totally a win-win situation .
You are a classic example of having grown digitally from ground level . What are 3 things you did consistently to reach where you are now ? The first thing I did was shift my mindset from social media being a portfolio building tool to it being a community building tool . I used to use it as a place to share quick moments from my life , mostly shows I was performing at , random photos and music videos , but it very much felt like a one-way relationship . And more importantly , it felt like a chore or an obligation . But when I started to think of it as this incredible community BUILDING tool , my mindset and approach to it immediately changed . Not only was I interacting with the community daily via comments , messages and other content , but we were also building across social media ( YouTube , Insta-gram , Discord ) and attempting to create a safe space . I started having fun with it , and that ’ s the main thing .
The second thing I would recommend is doing research - really understanding your audience and analytics , beyond just the numbers . What do they care about ? Who else do they watch or listen to ? How old are they ? What kinds of trends are they responding to ? Sometimes it ’ s hit and miss , but much of the time it ’ s very intentional . Think about what you can offer within the broader context of what people currently care about / are resonating with . Track the numbers , but don ’ t let them control or dictate your life .
The third ? Try , fail and try again . Not everything you put out is going to work or resonate . Un-like a traditional music release where you work on it for a few months and plan out a full cam-paign around the release , digital content involves more frequent output ( or at least , it should ). The cool thing is that you get instant feedback ! The hard thing is that you ’ re literally growing in front of people ’ s eyes ( or not ), with them watching your every move , and with so many more opportunities for them to criticise you . Unless you experiment though , you won ’ t have enough data points to see what is working with your current audience and how to expand to a new one .
As an artist , you constantly put out interesting content on your digital space . How has that been received by your audiences so far ? I thought for the longest time that I ’ d have to be a more “ established ” musician for people to care about my voice beyond my singing voice , but I was definitely wrong . Once I started diver-sifying my content , still keeping music and social impact at the core , I started to attract newer audiences who might have come for a specific vertical , but stayed for the music . Or at the very least , stayed for me and my holistic brand . I ’ ve realised that because I keep songs , stories and conversations at the forefront of what I do , folks feel comfortable engaging with all of them as well in all those forms . I ’ ve had to strike a balance of course , but I see other types of content as an extension of who I am , what I care about , and the people I care about , so it all feels very organic and fun .
How do you ensure you are updated with the latest trends on social media given the constant change and algorithms ? You can ’ t be a proficient musician unless you spend a lot of time practicing music . Similarly you can ’ t be updated with what is working on social media unless you spend time on the plat-form . Create on the platform , follow people who inspire you , save things you see and you like , create a storyboard or mood board . There are several ways you can “ keep up ” with what ’ s go-ing on , it does take a lot of work though . Find accounts that are generalised in the areas you care about , save trending sounds , see if you can put your spin on what ’ s trending , while still maintaining your own voice . Log and keep track of things digitally or old-school on paper !
You also talk about a lot of social issues prevailing in our society on your digital platforms . What drives you to create content that is of importance ? It ’ s always been at the heart of what I do and care about . I ’ ve done a lot of work in the spaces of health and education even as a teenager , because I realised that you
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